Lift span

Yes, go down from the kitchen to the playroom under the stairs to the bedroom. There are a few structural issues to overcome but all possible I think. We thought about putting a long window in the spare room facing south but it would change the whole look at the front. It’s a nice idea to split the rooms as well but, having lived there a few years we like the room layout the way it is. One extra piece of information. Some time in the future I’d like to put a loft conversion in. With your idea I think loft steps would work well up from the +2 level as shown below.

Jimbo, I recommend Architouch 3D for initial designs. Really easy to use on an ipad. The later designs are in Sketchup. Not sure if I can post the Sketchup file on here, but there is a free 3D viewer on the ipad which is brilliant.

Here is the view from the front door looking in. We want light to come from the front of the house to the back and this new configuration would block that. However, glass risers and a window style opening to the right may solve that? More views:

Well AliG you’ve come up with something I’d completely missed! Reversing the stairs down to the kitchen from the living room to now go up instead. Is this what you mean (arrows on stairs go up).

Anyone had experience of installing stone cladding? I’m considering something like the picture below by these people: https://www.norstone.co.uk/ Only downside I can see so far is that the outer skin of blockwork would have to be dense aggregate blocks to support the weight as they are around 60-70kg/m2.

Ah... now I get you: 1. Landings must be provided at the top and bottom of every staircase. 2. The landing distance in front of the top and bottom step must be at least the width of the staircase. Thanks. Will need to change that then.

That’s a fair point. I’ve modified the stairs. Is the lower left step what you’re talking about?

I’d definitely decided on a grey door. Now you’ve got me thinking :

Yes pretty much. Although in reality there won’t be steps outside the front door. We’ve been around this alot and and in the end decided it’s a quirky house now and it will be when it’s done. We thought about swapping the kitchen to the lower floor. Or, having an open central atrium with a level area to the kitchen. In the end we thought other parts of the house would be compromised for the sake of a few steps. It’s never too late though ....!

The interior hasn’t changed much apart from the entrance way itself. We have also got plans for kitchen extension which I’ll do after this is complete. View from inside looking towards front door:

My Ferarri parked out the front adds a bit of colour. (Only kidding. It’s a Skoda and it’s grey.)

Just to update this. It took a while but I’ve got planning permission through and I’m in the process of getting the Building Regs approved. I’ve changed things a little bit. What do people think? I’ve gone off the Cedral cladding idea and am looking at stone/flint cladding only on the front extension instead. The windows and doors are in Iron grey (RAL 7011).

Dear All, Finally got planning permission and I’m looking at what my options are for building my new front entrance way. The slight complication is that a 6m long retaining wall is required as part of the design (1.5m high of earth to be retained). I’m thinking standard footings with steel reinforced hollow concrete blocks for the retaining wall. This wall would also form the substructure under the doorway. For the walls of the entrance way what would be better? Timber or blockwork?

Thanks for that ProDave. We probably don’t even want to go beyond the wall. I think on top of the wall is all we need for space. You have hit the nail on the head though as to why we may have problems going out further. I reckon it is all made up ground so we would have to go very deep or use an alternate expensive foundation system. How would we bridge the gap over from the house to the retaining wall though?

Thanks for the reply. Timber frame is an option however the extension is mainly glass. I’m now thinking that I could just build on the existing retaining wall as I’ve dug inspection holes and the footings are deep. The extension would be 0.5m smaller but the kitchen would still be a good size. A steel goalpost construction could then be used on top of that wall. I’m wondering if I could use concrete lintels below the DPC level to span the 1.5m gap from the house to the wall and then build on there. See below: